I am Sophie, a Swedish woman by birth but English by adoption. I have a little mud hotel in the beautiful and ancient West African town of Djenne, Mali. WWW.HOTELDJENNEDJENNO.COM Because of unstable political
situation, tourism has ground to a halt. Hotel still open! But hotel staff mainly working in Bogolan studio now: www.malimali.org check out our fab online shop!

Monday, July 08, 2013

And the other thing yesterday was the kick- off of the Malian
election campaign. 28 presidential
candidates had their investiture ceremony by their respective parties. 28
candidates gave their speeches, assuring the Malian voters that they are the
only choice for the Mali of the future. Some
three or four of these are heavyweights
and needed sport stadia for the huge crowds that had gathered to support them.
Sumaila Cisse, the candidate for the URD was in the sport stadium of Mopti. Ibrahim Boubakar Keita aka IBK (above) for his party RPM took on his supporters
in the 26 March Stadium in Bamako while Modibo
Sidibe, he candidate most Malians feel should be languishing in jail for past
mismanagement of funds in the ATT government, entertained his many supporters
in Kayes. Malians are a forgiving and tolerant people, sometimes to their
detriment...

All the candidates promised to improve education; create
work opportunities; fight against corruption and create a strong and well
equipped army. There is no time of course to actually find out how the various
candidates are hoping to achieve their identical goals. The election is 20 days
away! My hunch is that the battle is between IBK and Sumaila Cisse...My keita
went to Mopti yesterday to support Sumaila Cisse’s URD with a considerable crowd of friends that
he had commandeered. When Keita decides to support someone he becomes something
of a local force. This fact was recognized by the Djenne M.P Sekou Cisse (URD)
who paid us a visit the day before yesterday.